


Like Absolution

by Starlithorizon



Category: Sherlock (TV)
Genre: Conversation, Gen, Post Reichenbach
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-30
Updated: 2012-12-30
Packaged: 2017-11-22 23:24:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/615548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starlithorizon/pseuds/Starlithorizon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Good men have dark days. Sometimes, they need a light to find the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like Absolution

**Author's Note:**

> I kind of just got their whole conversation in my head, out of nowhere, and liked where it went. So this happened.

"I'm not good for you, John."

"What?"

"I'm not. I'm dangerous."

"Yes, well, it should be obvious by now that I like dangerous. That's why we're here, isn't it?"

"But you don't _get it_. I am not a good man. I never have been, and after what I did, well, what I was before has been long dead."

"Don't you dare."

"Dare what? Telling you the truth?"

"Lying again! Look, we both know that you're difficult and all that, but you are not a bad person, do you understand?"

"I killed people, John!"

"So did I!"

"It's different, and you know it. You were a soldier."

"Not when I shot the cabbie, I wasn't!"

"Christ, you shot one man to save another's life. You may not have been in the army when you did it, but it was with a soldier's principles. Not me. Not my tally. I wasn't protecting—I was dismantling. I was tearing that damned web apart, thread by thread."

"You eliminated a vast crime network, Sherlock. _And_ you did it to save our lives."

"That is beside the point."

"How is that— Sherlock, that _is_ the point!"

"You still don't see it! God, loyalty is making you thick!"

"Then go on, Almighty Genius, enlighten me."

"You killed because it was in your job description. Self-defense, too, I'd imagine. To keep me safe. Me, I was doing to because it was easy. So much simpler to sink a bullet in someone's heart, knock them from their position that way. I killed because it was less difficult than the alternative. I am no more than one of them."

"Don't. You. _Fucking_. Dare."

"No, I—"

"Shut up, okay? Just shut up. You are _not_  like them. You didn't kill because you enjoyed it, or to gain ranking in their circle, or whatever they did. You killed out of necessity. I reckon most of it was self-defense, no matter what you tell me. I've seen the scars. So don't even _begin_ to say that you are like any of those thugs."

"John—"

"Not done. And don't you try to tell me that you aren't a good man. Your methods might be a little unorthodox, yeah, but your end goal is _always_ good. You are the best man I have ever known, and don't you dare say otherwise. I've killed too, and I feel like you're...well, not _penance_. Being your flatmate, your protector, your friend, well, it feels like _absolution_."

"I— John, I am not a saint."

"Never said you were. Anyway, we've killed for each other. You even went and _died_ for me. Don't you tell me that you're a bad person, because you're not. I will tell you every day for the rest of your life until you believe it, because you are my best friend, and the most human, human I have ever met."

"John, I— You know me. Who I am, who I was, and you stayed anyway. I— I was so alone, and I owe you so much."

"I know, Sherlock. Same here."

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if John knows that Sherlock caught his speech over his gravestone. So... You know. Imagine what you like.


End file.
